I wasn't sure how the $$ stream worked with web ads. If I click and don't buy you still get paid? I appreciate what y'all do so I'll be a clicking fool from now on as long as I don't have to contribute to NOM.

The ads are a bit incongruous and a tad annoying, but I rarely pay attention to them. The Nation magazine makes a point of accepting ads from people they don't agree with. If it's good enough for the Nation, it's good enough for Bilerico.

NOM' claims are irrelevant -- they will use a low count to ensure it.

Bilerico gets the money and *all* ads like that (google ads, basically) generate money for the hosting site 2 ways: pay per impression (per time it shows up on a page) and pay per click. Bilerico gets more money per click.

And Bil -- I was serious. You promise to donate the money from my clicks (or a specific portion of it) to trans affirming organizations, and I'll do so.

Otherwise, its *still* not worth my time to actually click on an ad (and I think I can count the number of times I have *anywhere* on one hand).

If an ad appeals to me, I mark the url, and go back to when I feel like it.

As a regular contributor to Bilerico DC, I have to admit I was utterly shocked when I saw a NOM ad - and it was on one of my articles - on the site. I didn't go ballistic, but it was close as the article was about how stupid and bigoted NOM is.

After reading Jerame's article and thinking about it, he is absolutely correct. Everyone should at the very least click on the advert.

My only question is will they be able to follow the "virtual paper trail" and cease advertising on Bilerico? If so, maybe just a click through, then dump the link and either go to their site independently and write an email or go back to what you were doing.

In either case, you're helping out our community in the process. I think a click-thru at least will be productive - these people are stupid and will probably only look at the metrics and continue advertising on LGBTQ sites.

I like the idea of clicking on it.

I particularly like the idea of LGBT being such great clickers that NOM sees how good the response is on LGBT sites that they give up targeting non-LGBT sites. Then their message only goes out to those that don't care about them.

Deanna

I think there's a difference between organizations who are advertising to spread a message and merchants who are advertising to make money -- were it me, I wouldn't want to direct business to someone who used their profits to take away my rights, but I wouldn't mind taking money from someone who would never convince anyone on my site that homosexuality is a sin.

Though I do worry about some kid somewhere Googling "gay" for the first time -- by having such a strong political bent, does Bilerico implicitly make a commitment to its readers that they can trust its advertising content to only give money to people who aren't our enemies and not blindside us with arguments that our lives and identities are wrong? They're not easy questions.

That said, given the current economic situation, I think I'd rather have Bilerico with ads I find off-putting than no Bilerico at all. But will that policy last once things get less precarious?

I like the idea of getting the money from NOM but what scares me is if some sexually confused person gets led astray by these people just by clicking the link. They will stop at nothing to try and shame or degrade people into hating their feelings.

Every penny they spend putting ads on LGBT websites is utterly wasted money, so why not oblige them to waste their money?

That might be true if you assume that all LGBT people (or readers of LGBT websites) support same sex marriage. Since that assumption is demonstrably not true, your conclusion isn't true either.

Your rhetoric does, however, contribute to the silencing of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender voices that oppose marriage. Please try harder in the future to acknowledge the spectrum of opinion in our community regarding this issue, rather than perpetuating the myth that monolithic support for marriage accurately defines LGBT attitudes.